» Posts Tagged ‘lenses’
A little while ago I posted a RED SCARLET torture test (so-called because of subzero temperatures and other limitations of the shoot) that I shot on some 35 year-old Canon K35 prime lenses. A couple of commenters asked why I would choose to buy lenses that have been on this earth longer than I have, instead of getting new Canon glass (for which RED has an inexpensive mount) or something else currently on the market. For one, I like the idea of older lenses combined with the new ultra-sharp imagers, which are sometimes too sharp for my tastes. The K35s won an Academy Award in 1977 and have been used on several features over the years (Aliens being the best example I could find on IMDb), but I doubt they hold up to modern CAD lenses like the Cooke Panchros in the sharpness department. I don’t recommend this approach for most people, and this remains an in-progress experiment, but if you’re interested in the thought process, feel free to read on. More »
Zeiss recently added a 15mm T/2.9 and a 135mm T/2.1 to their CP.2 line. Now they’ve decided to bring back the Super Speed name and are coming out with 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm T/1.5 lenses. It seems that the 50mm and the 85mm are the same design as the old CP.1 lenses, except they’ve opened them up to be faster – but the 35mm is supposedly a new design. Zeiss is also introducing a new line of zooms that will accompany their CP.2 line, and the first of these is the CP.Z 70-200mm T/2.9. I talked with Richard Schleuning of Zeiss at this year’s NAB about all of their new products. More »
Zeiss has officially updated it’s CP.2 line of lenses, adding a cinema version of it’s newly announced 15mm ZF and ZE still primes, as well as a very fast 135mm telephoto lens. Both lenses are incredible pieces of craftsmanship for the amount of money you’re paying, and as always with the CP.2 lenses, they have interchangeable mounts which include PL, EF, F, MFT and E. Speaking of Swiss Army Knife lenses, if you can afford it, these are really the most compatible lenses out there, and the custom back mounts will do a much better job giving a solid hold than an adapter. More »
We’re always talking about new gear, but that doesn’t mean you can’t create something beautiful with old gear. In fact, the older the better! A while back we saw Timur Civan pair a 5D Mark II with a 100-year-old lens, and it produced a technically poor but aesthetically pleasing image. There are times when the image doesn’t need to be perfect, and we might want some wear in our image. Jason Bognacki has taken this a step further and has actually attached a Piccolette Contessa-Nettel folding camera from around 1926 to his Canon 5D Mark II. Thankfully he has graced us not only with photographs, but a video as well. More »
Zeiss has never been a company to disappoint. They consistently make fantastic manual focus lenses, and they now make lenses with just about every popular lens mount. Today they announced a new, ultra-expensive lens, the 15mm F/2.8 in ZF and ZE mounts. The internal design seems to be an improvement over the original Zeiss 15mm f/2.8, which was made for Zeiss Ikon and Leica M cameras. That lens, at $4600, makes this lens look like a bargain. More »
Lenses have been covered here a few times before – especially in the DSLR Cinematography Guide (and even a guest post by Matthew Duclos), but I thought this video put together by Caleb Pike over at DSLR Video Shooter was as thorough and brief as one could be on the subject of Nikon prime lenses. Even though Koo dislikes them for their backwards focusing, I happen to own quite a few of them and wouldn’t recommend any other type of lens to budget filmmakers. More »
Canon Raises the Bar with New 24-70mm F/2.8L and Overhauls Two Other Lenses with Image Stabilization
Need a new lens to go along with that new camera? Canon just announced three new full frame lenses: the EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM, and updated Image Stabilized primes: the EF 24mm f/2.8 IS USM and EF 28mm f/2.8 IS USM. What’s significant about version II of the 24-70mm? Let’s take a look at some MTF chart comparisons and see if we can find out: More »
Last week I shared a “blind” shootout between seven sets of prime lenses. Viewers of the extensive test were instructed to pick their favorites and wait for the answer key to find out which lens was which. Now the answers are live with the videos, and downloadable .R3D files (it was shot on a RED EPIC) are also available: More »
What have we here? A nice addition to the roundup of lens options for the new breed of Super35 cameras. Indent Studios in Oregon hosted a shootout between seven different PL lens sets: the Cooke Panchro /i, Luma Tech Super 35 Illuminas, Red Pro Primes, Unique Optics Kenji Suematsu Series, Leica R Cine-Mod, Schneider Cine-Xenar II, & Zeiss Compact Primes v1 & v2. Shot on a RED EPIC at 5K, they’ve released the tests initially as a “blind” test — meaning, go ahead and watch them and pick your favorite lenses. Then, a week later, they’ll label the tests so you know which is which: More »
Zeiss’s popular Compact Primes are getting some brothers and sisters. To their current full frame, interchangeable lens mount lineup, Zeiss is planning on adding new Compact Prime CP.2s of wider than 18 mm and longer (or equal to) 100 mm, a compact tele zoom lens (70-200 mm, possibly), and a complete set of Anamorphic prime lenses — with a 2X squeeze, which at first I found a bit odd. More »
After speaking at AENY, a great community of film/MGFX folks in NYC, I was chatting with some DPs and one of them mentioned Chinese knockoffs of the Zeiss CP2 lenses. My ears perked up, as there’s a dearth of low-cost cinema primes in the world. The Zeiss CP2s, at $4k a lens, are in fact some of the cheapest available at roughly $20k a set. It turns out the Chinese knockoffs he mentioned retain the genuine Zeiss optics, for half the price. The question is, are they any good? More »
This is a guest post by Matthew Duclos of Duclos Lenses.
There’s no doubt that all of the new cameras announced in the past couple years are very capable in their own field and will prove to produce many, many beautiful images. Regardless of your camera choice, everyone is going to need to find a lens that fits their style and fulfills their needs for a range of productions. Whether you’re shooting a film school project or shooting a feature film, there is a balance to lensing your imagers. More »
A longer lens can flatten and widen a face, whereas a wider lens can pinch/pull facial features into an ugly distortion. This is true because of the varying physical distance to your subject that accompanies your choice of lens. This is not just a consideration for portrait photography, but also comes into play when choosing a lens for filming actors. For the the full size images of the thumbnails above, see photographer Stephen Eastwood’s site, or watch a video of how different distances (and accompanying lens choices) affect facial geometry by LensProToGo: More »
Digital cinematography often looks too clean to my eye, and I like “messing up” the images a bit (whenever appropriate). To this end, I bought a Lensbaby Composer Pro earlier this year, and, as always, my timing seems to be the opposite of impeccable: Lensbaby has just released a lens kit specifically for movie makers, aptly named the Movie Maker’s Kit. Here are the various lenses in action: More »
One of the reasons you hear so much about cameras on this site is not because cameras are all that important — which camera you shoot on is only a tiny part of the decision-making that goes into making a film — but because at no time in history has motion picture imaging changed so rapidly as right now. One of the ways it’s changing most significantly is in the convergence between still and motion imaging, and RED is at the forefront with their DSMCs. Their latest news is that they will soon start shipping their Canon mount, and it brings a lot of firsts to the table for a serious motion picture camera. More »
In response to the trailer for Like Crazy — the DSLR-shot indie feature that sold for $4 million at Sundance — some commenters asked about the merits of PL-mount lenses vs. Canon lenses. Traditionally, motion picture PL lenses are many times more expensive than Canon glass and offer better tactile, manual controls. But in the digital age, some of Canon’s features are suddenly handy, and RED recognizes this. More »
In addition to the low price of an HDSLR itself, a key factor in the hybrid video/still revolution has been the widespread availability of video-appropriate still lenses. Here, Caleb Pike of DSLR Video Shooter offers some good tips for adapting still lenses for video work: More »
Have you ever found yourself holding an SLR lens in one hand and an iPhone in the other, thinking, “if only I could use these two together?” If so — really? — you’re in luck. The iPhone SLR Mount is exactly what it sounds like — a $250 adapter that allows you to use any Nikon or Canon mount SLR lenses with your iPhone. The two-piece device looks like this (lens not included): More »
[UPDATE from Carl Zeiss at the bottom of this post.] Zeiss CP.2 lenses are a top choice among HDSLR and AF100/F3 cinematographers because of their optics, size, and weight. At roughly $4k/lens, however, they’re a tad expensive when compared to their ZF.2 still cousins (which contain the same optics and retail for around $1,500). Unknown Italian camera company kelvincamera has announced that they have successfully re-housed the ZF.2 with the CP.2 features (common front diameters, focus and iris markings, and fixed gear rings) and will be selling these “babyPrimes” for 35-40% less than the CP.2s (which would bring them in around $2,500). More »
Inspiration Studios, the same guys who brought us this humorous comparison of the ARRI ALEXA and RED EPIC, are back at it with a look at the high-end Cooke 5/i prime lenses. These aren’t lenses for DSLR or DIY filmmaking, but it’s an entertaining video (with a foray into NSFW territory): More »
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